IMAJ | volume 13
Journal 12, December 2011
pages: 730-734
Summary
Background:
Comorbid depression may play an important role in non-
compliance with medical treatment among patients with chronic illnesses
. Glaucoma is a potentially blinding chronic disease requiring life-long commitment to medical therapy. Patient's failure to adhere to anti-glaucoma treatment may lead to disease progression and visual loss.
Objectives:
To assess the
prevalence of depressive symptoms in glaucoma patients and the association between these symptoms and non-compliance with anti-glaucoma therapy.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional observational study. Compliance with pharmacotherapy was assessed with the Morisky Medication Adherence questionnaire (eight items). Screening for depression was performed by means of the CES-D scale (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale). The association between depression and compliance rates was analyzed.
Results: The study group comprised 76 glaucoma patients; 19.7% of the subjects were classified as "non-compliant" (Morisky cutoff < 10) and 21.1% suffered from depression (CES-D cutoff ≥ 16). We found a similar level of non-compliance when comparing depressed with non-depressed glaucoma patients. However, a significant correlation was observed between the level of depression and the level of non-compliance (P = 0.04).
Conclusions: Our study revealed a similar rate of depression in glaucoma patients and the general Israeli population. The presence of depression was not associated with the presence of non-compliance, yet the level of depression was associated with the level of non-compliance.